How to Build a Backyard Cinema

You can only make so many trips to the multiplex for mediocre movies. Instead of sitting through another popcorn flick in the dark, turn your backyard into the modern version of a drive-in and invite over an audience of your closest friends. We'll help you gear up.

How to Build a Backyard Cinema

How to Build a Backyard Cinema

Making the most of these dog days—and nights—isn't just about pool parties and patio barbecues. Big-budget blockbusters are an essential summer staple for vitamin D—deprived cinephiles and beach bodies alike. But you can only make so many trips to the multiplex for mediocre movies. Take control of your plein-air pixels by creating an outdoor theater that celebrates—and even outshines—a drive-in theater. Whether your guests are watching battling aliens, sharks, or cybernetic organisms hopping back in time, you'll be the most popular person in the neighborhood with your DIY backyard cinema.

Camp Chef Backyard Big Screen, $283

Camp Chef Backyard Big Screen, $283

Film buffs will approve of the 16:9 aspect ratio and the opaque black layer behind the white face of the 120-inch-diagonal screen, which blocks out distracting background light. A 9.5-foot-tall frame stabilizes the 44-pound apparatus on breezy nights.